Spinach makes you strong, even Popeye knew that. Many children disdain it, many adults love it and the green leaves have a versatile vitamin and mineral content. However, spinach also contains the dreaded nitrate, which is why some things should be taken into account when preparing it.
Here’s what you should know about spinach
The taste of spinach depends greatly on its harvest time, as different varieties must be planted at different times of the year. A distinction is made between spring or summer spinach and autumn or winter spinach. Spinach owes its great popularity to Popeye, among others. The comic hero always ate the green leafy vegetable from a can, which gave him superhuman strength. About 800 grams of the green vegetable are consumed in this country per capita and per year. The world’s first spinach was probably grown in Southeast Asia, more precisely in Persia. From there, it gradually made its way to Germany and Europe via Spain. Apart from Germany, it is mainly grown in France and Italy. The main season for fresh spinach leaves in this country is between April and May. However, thanks to greenhouses, the green leafy vegetable can also be grown for much longer, from March to December. Spinach is therefore available fresh almost all year round. Alternatively, quickly prepared leaf spinach and creamed spinach are available in the refrigerated section of every supermarket and discount store. Frozen products even make up a large part of all spinach products sold. The taste of spinach depends greatly on its harvest time, as different varieties must be planted at different times of the year. A distinction is made between spring or summer spinach and fall or winter spinach. While the first regional spinach in March still has very tender leaves, towards autumn they become much stronger and spicier and contain larger stems.
Importance for health
Spinach has long been said to have tremendous strength-giving properties due to its high iron content. In fact, however, this assumption was based on an error, as a decimal point had slipped in the specification of the iron content and the actual value is far below the original assumption. A miracle cure for muscle building is therefore spinach unfortunately not. Nevertheless, the green leafy vegetable is extremely healthy: It contains numerous minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium with few calories. The zinc also contained strengthens the immune system. The list of vitamins it contains is also long. However, spinach also contains a lot of oxalic acid. This inhibits the absorption of various minerals such as iron by the body. In addition, it often contains a lot of nitrate. However, nitrate only becomes problematic when it is converted to nitrite due to incorrect storage and preparation of the green leaves. Nevertheless, spinach should not be demonized, because other vegetables also contain nitrate, sometimes even in much larger quantities. Cool storage can slow down the formation of nitrate in spinach. Blanching also releases some of this nitrate into the cooking water.
Ingredients and nutritional values
| Nutritional information |
Amount per 100 gram |
| Calories 23 | Fat content 0.4 g |
| Cholesterol 0 mg |
Sodium 79 mg |
| Potassium 558 mg | Carbohydrates 3.6 g |
| Protein 2,8 g |
Vitamin C 28.1 mg |
Spinach also contains numerous minerals and vitamins, especially iron and zinc. The following information refers to 100 grams of fresh spinach:
- 3.4mg iron
- 0.7g zinc
- 62mg magnesium
- 117mg calcium
- 554mg potassium
- 0.8mg vitamin A
- 0.09mg vitamin B1
- 0.2mg vitamin B2
- 0.22mg vitamin B6
- 51mg vitamin C
- 1.35mg vitamin E
Intolerances and allergies
Spinach causes food allergies in only extremely rare cases. Nevertheless, spinach is not good for consumption for some people. Because spinach contains a lot of histamine, people with histamine intolerance should avoid it as much as possible. Spinach is also only conditionally suitable for consumption by infants, as they are far more sensitive to the nitrate it contains than adults.Before six months of age, infants should not be offered spinach at all, and after six months of age, it should be offered only in combination with other foods that are lower in nitrates.
Shopping and kitchen tips
If possible, always buy spinach from organic farming. Spinach from conventional cultivation is – especially outside the peak season – often heavily contaminated with nitrate. Fresh spinach leaves should be washed thoroughly before preparation. To do this, simply place the loose leaves in a large bowl filled with water or the sink, stir them around in there a few times with your hands, and then drain them. After that, it is still recommended to remove coarse stem ends. Widely known is the fact that spinach should not be reheated after heating once. This is due to the fact that nitrate can transform into nitrite even in prepared spinach. However, this advice has since been debunked as a myth. If spinach is allowed to cool quickly after preparation and then stored in the refrigerator or, even better, the freezer, it can be eaten by a healthy person without any problems even after it has been reheated a second time. At room temperature, spinach will keep for up to a week. The warmer it is stored, the faster the leaves collapse. So it keeps a little longer in the refrigerator. However, frozen spinach is also very popular. This can be bought ready to cook in the form of leaf spinach, cream spinach or various types of seasoned spinach. Alternatively, fresh spinach leaves can be blanched briefly and then frozen. Once frozen, spinach leaves should be stored in the freezer until just before use and then gently thawed and cooked over medium heat.
Preparation tips
Spinach can be eaten raw, such as in salads, or cooked. For raw consumption, however, only young, tender leaves should be used in view of the taste. Pasta dishes with spinach are particularly popular. However, the green leafy vegetable is not only suitable for savory dishes, but is also extremely popular as an ingredient for green smoothies. For this, the spinach is simply pureed in a blender with various types of fruit such as bananas. If the spinach is blanched, its volume is reduced considerably. So the amount purchased should not be overestimated. The water used in blanching spinach should not be reused and instead simply dumped away. This is because this water contains some of the nitrate found in spinach, which is released into the water during blanching and is unhealthy in large quantities. Because spinach contains a lot of chlorophyll, it is suitable as a natural coloring agent for foods such as pasta and also for other things such as drugstore products.
